The entire episode is striking in comparison with the treatment of real mental health patients. Last year, non-profit association of psychiatric patients' families issued a position paper, calling for reform of compulsory hospitalization procedures.
The families claimed that they had no access to obtain compulsory hospitalization orders from the district psychiatrists in cases of violent episodes by previously diagnosed, previously hospitalized family members.
The families claimed that the district psychiatrists routinely referred them to police, demanding that they first file criminal complaints, leading to detention of their family members. Psychiatric examination by order of the district psychiatrists were routinely conducted in detention centers. The families objected to such practices, which led to criminalization of mental health patients.
A culture of repression by public service employees
The entire Ben Simone episode is also striking, since its shows a series of professionals, who are public servants -- an attorney, who is the Freedom of Information Office of the Ministry of Justice, a social worker, and at least three psychiatrists - operating expediently and in concert to deprive a protester of her freedom at the whim of the Justice Minister.
The case reflects the culture of a
repressive regime.
Conditions in the US are not much
different
In 2009-10, in Los Angeles County, California, two attorneys were hospitalized by Sheriff Lee Baca, after they protested judicial corruption:
-
Former federal prosecutor, 70 yo Richard Fine was held for 18 months in solitary confinement in LA Central Men's Jail in a hospital room. [i]
-
Attorney Ronald Gottschalk was held for several weeks in solitary confinement in LA General Hospital psychiatric ward.
In both cases, the attorneys were held by Sheriff Lee Baca under false booking records. [ii]
Today, Sheriff Lee Baca is facing a prison term, following various federal corruption investigations. [iii]
However, as was the case a decade earlier, during the notorious Los Angeles Rampart scandal, which was described as LAPD corruption, the underlying core judicial corruption in LA County has never been addressed . Prof. Erwin Chemerinsky, then at USC, today Dean of UC Irvine law school wrote about the LA County justice system: "This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states" and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted." [iv]
The Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission for the first ever UN Human Rights Council review of Human Rights in the United States (2010), documented conditions of the justice in LA County, California. [v] The outcome was a note in the Council's final report: " C orruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California".
LINKS:
[i] 2010-01-21Attorney Richard Fine - dissident's false hospitalization in Los Angeles County, California
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